I like the TV show Mad Men. I don't have a TV, but I've watched the first two seasons on DVD (loaned to me when I went to deliver a painting to a client's house) and I periodically get updates from a few of my friends on facebook as to what happened on the show this week. I'm a fan of period pieces I guess....the difference in dress, the mannerisms, the daily social politics. That show certainly has that. Well, that....and some RAD style.
And that is what this piece is inspired from. I got a bit farther along with it this evening. Last night I experimented drawing on the birch panel with pencil (the hats in the background along the top). This evening I finished the basic outline of the 'dandies'.

I'm a little sad that the hats are going to be covered as much as they are.....especially since the pencil drawings turned out so great on the birch panel, even underneath a layer of self-leveling gel. But, it happens. I'm still happy with it.

Today at the cafe (as always when I'm highly caffeinated and in the middle of making a drink for someone) I got a string of other ideas for animal paintings....and as always, grabbed a small piece of till tape and scribbled them down quickly. When I'm in the studio painting....I think about sipping coffee and how badly I want one. When I'm working at the cafe, I think about painting. I'm a bit of a hopeless, caffeine dependent, creative case.